bakari sellers is an american attorney political commentator and he made in the 2006 south carolina state legislature as the youngest african american official in the nation at the age of 22, his political career did not stop there. in 2014, he was, a democratic nominee for lieutenant in the

state of south carolina. but chi has also worked for united states congressman james clyburn and atlanta mayor shirley franklin. his accomplishments do not go unnoticed within the democratic party. in 2008, he on president obama's south carolina steering committee. his ability to reach across the aisle to get things done has led to numerous achieving including being named time magazine's 40 under 40 and the route one list of the nation's most influential african-americans in 2015 and hbo. top 30 under 30 in july 2010, 2014. bakari has served as a featured speaker at political events universities and national trade organizations across the country. such as the 2008 and 2016 democratic national convention.

april ryan is a long time white house correspondent. most dc political analysts and dc bureau chief for the grio she appeared on cnn as a political analyst from 2017 until 2023. she has received several awards and honors and she is the author of several books, including her most recent black women world save the nation and anthem please join me in welcoming bakari sellers in april to discuss his latest work, the moment thoughts on, the race reckoning that wasn't and how can move forward forward now thank you. good evening. pratt you can better than that.

good evening pratt. that's what i'm talking about. and welcome to my be more i love it i love it. i could not i could not baltimore having april ryan here with me give another round of applause. fair. it's good to be home. it's good to be. but it's good to welcome you to my home. yes, ma'am. and talk about this brave new book, the moment i'm i've worked with bakari and you've seen him. what you get on tv and it's amazing. you're human. as we have discussions, thoughts on this. he's so young but one of those brilliant minds, he's a great thinker, especially when it comes to black people. and at issue for with him, i used to always, how is this all rolled up into this very man he grew up at the knee of his father who was a member snick

whose best friend was stokely. stokely carmichael roommates right and his father also marched and worked with the late great john lewis yeah yes yes. so we're in for a great evening this book is a compare and contrast from yesterday yeah his father says 1954 we're back in 1954 he does this is 2024 and in this book his said we were back in 1954 and if you close your eyes sometimes and turn your head and a quick glance it's a sepia toned look doesn't it look that way my father and i we have these discussions often and we we ask ourselves very simple questions and this book encapsulates two simple questions of how far we come and where do we go from here. this is like the state of black america. and so and so you to have a

sobering look at my father. the book starts with a picture of my dad it's my dad and john lewis and jim forman and they're outside of they have just gotten bonded out of prison because they protesting apartheid at the south african embassy in new york. and the people that bonded out were harry belafonte and sidney poitier. right. right. and so it's this really unique that i start book with, because, you know, when you go around your and you have, you know, your parents or grandparent it's you, you sometimes stumble across pictures from their day. and i picked this picture and it's just one i look at and it shows interesting cross-section in the black community. grassroots activism, pop culture, entertaining men and wealth and. my father always says that they're individuals in our community that do not do enough, and that's what he was

articulating. and back then they had to. harry and they had the poitier to join them in their the stevie wonder's oh yeah the correct so many more they actually lifted up the civil rights movement financially correct correct. and so he says the same thing. he utilizes kanye west in his description. and i, i said, daddy, kanye bingo put it in put it in the proper context. okay. and in terms. yeah, no, i kanye is what happens when -- read but doesn't either him or the so we are on c-span please they'll be okay they will be okay but. no i go back and and i talk about the work of people like you, beyonce and jay-z bonding our protesters in baton rouge. that a lot people don't know actually happened. i talk about the work of people like john legend and many and i and kerry washington and many others, our community that are doing the work even when you don't see it. but the overarching at the beginning of this book is that

it takes an entire community, we have to workwe have to work as they did in the movement. if we'reo the wheel and get ourselves out. ditch yeah. billie holiday oh, yeah. strange fruit, you know, lynching issue and we and that's so important to put it in context from yesterday to now when all we do is sometimes just sing songs and raise the fist, it takes more than just doing that to make a difference, especially now in these crazy times. so you are a proud south carolinian? yes, ma'am how many of you? from south carolina? i'm here. you you know, it's funny, you come to these big cities, everybody, everybody like, they city folk, but all your grandparents were from south carolina georgia, alabama, north carolina, my mom, north carolina. you this country is the rest of us. i didn't go that far. but you are a proud south. you wear your marching on your

shoulders. yeah, you wear your your community on your shoulders. and this book starts for me in time when this nation had to face itself covid. mm. we were. and we sick and tired of being sick and tired and a young man had knee on his neck and he cried out, mom mama, take us there. so the book, the moment it about a moment that i was on and a very i'm a very, very emotional person, you see, is a cry. right. and don't i don't care i'll judge me. i let my therapist judge me if i need to. but i was it was the time when don don lemon said, i look like a young teddy pendergrass. i had an afro and my beard out and, you know, we were doing tv

from our room tables and we weren't going to the barbers. we weren't going to put in my pajama pants. yeah and i had just gotten out the bed. and my twins, they were they babies at the time, baby babies at the time. and they were in our bed. they usually in our bed in the in early part of the morning and daughter was upstairs because they were doing virtual learning. and i was on in a segment and we had alisyn camerota and john berman who were anchoring the morning show. in the segment before me was ben crump and philonise floyd, george's brother. and it was just a very very powerful segment. and you could hear the pain of the floyd family the pain of it reverberated through the screen it was palpable of of the trauma of a black experience. this country and they came to me the break and john berman was questioning about how do i feel? and i begin to think about my children who were laying in the bed, my daughter who was upstairs. and i i just became emotional and what do you tell your black

children? and it was a moment because i have a theory, george floyd. the first thing we have to do is analyze it in, the appropriate context. george floyd and the arrest of derek chauvin. that's accountability. that's not justice. okay. and i'm very particular language justice is george floyd still being here? accountability is what we saw. okay. now that's a good thing. and but we need to we need to it as such. but without the audacity that. 17 year old girl having her camera out and that battery still being charged. yeah without without 9 minutes of of chauvin having his knee on his neck with, him a grown man calling out for his mother as he's dying. and then without us being in covid cove, it played a huge rolebecause you you could not turn away from it. couldn't do your daily

task. you had to look and watch that over and over and, over and over again. and then the world came out in the streets. oh, and it took all of that just so that this black man could have accountability. wait a minute. the world came out in the streets. london. oh, every australia, baltimore. i was like, we hadn't had a vaccine at that time and some people weren't even wearing masks. i know my kids were like, i'm going to march. oh, yeah. your daughter was out there, too? yeah, i was proud of her. i was proud, too. but we were in covid and didn't know what was going on. but i'm just me. no, no, no. but i'm glad they did it. but i'm saying that to say the conviction. no matter, the danger going outside was there. yeah. and it was a moment and maybe it was my youthful naivete but i thought it was a moment the world would be able to empathize with the pain of being black in this country. and we missed that moment.

and there are argue that we've gone backwards since then. there were so many lessons to be learned from covid. there were so many lessons to be learned from george floyd. and here we are. and i argue that we have regressed. we also a monopoly. we owe it during covid. it all was around the the same time the brianna ammad say her name. yes and george floyd. it was it was an interesting time in this country's history one that i attempt to to describe covid was interesting because the two groups that were from a physical health and a economic standpoint, which were devastated the most were black folk and native americans. and i just think that we did not time to address the systemic in our communitieed question and we delve into this in the book, say, why did black folk die at higher rates than anybody else covid? and i say, take my hometown of denmark, south carolina, three

stoplights in a blinking light. i grew up in a food desert food means you can go one or two miles and have access to fresh and vegetables. our hospitals shut down. we did throughout the south. so you don't have access to quality care. our an flint michigan right so if you take all of the systemic inequities and then you overlay it with the pandemic, it's no wonder black folk are dying higher rates and the the we had a very race specific problem that my good friends in dc tried fix with race neutral solutions and that never works. i love i want to go back to something you said talked about derek chauvin and others who put the knee on the neck of george floyd and killed him. he could not breathe and that's not the first time we heard that. no, 11 times. eric garner. i can't breathe. remember that it wasn't it wasn't. he was selling loo broke a fight and he there reverend al

sharpton is the witness to that and said that. so but what i say is when we talk about not really an accountability in that case, no, it's rare. i hold all one second. i'm going to bring accountability piece to baltimore. freddie gray freddie gray, i don't care what you think about gray in his life there has been not one ounce of accountability for that child who has gone. and i don't care. you think of marilyn mosby, but she put on the map and ever got to make accountability. it didn't happen here, but daggone it it happened where a minnesota but it's a ripple effect once it gets enough that people see something is wrong, there's something to it. it happened other places, but not here. but i want people to get

comfortable with that notion that it happened other places because it's extremely rare. that's right. i represent these families all across the country. and you don't want to that knock at your door. i wish my job did not exist. i'm a civil rights lawyer by trade and so i go into these people's homes where. they ricky cobb, for example somebody i represent right now he was killed by the minnesota state police. and you have to be a psychiatrist. you have to be a sociologist. you have to be a lawyer. you have to do of these things. and very rarely do they get any modicum of accountability. the question that we have to ask and one of the things that i talk about in this book is that every ounce of change we've ever had in this country has been because black blood that flowed through the streets. and so people would then ask and challenge me on that and say to bakari, is that the legal genocide of black. but yeah i mean and what i what i do is i talk about the you

wouldn't have the 1960 465 voting rights act and civil rights act if you had the edmund pettus bridge, where the first time on nightly news white folk got an opportunity to see black folk beaten on that bridge with the n-word, dogs and water hoses. you it was able to be seen around the country you wouldn't have the fair housing act of 1968 if martin luther king not been assassinated. six weeks after. correct. you do not have a conversation. criminal justice reform, at least robust that the even tim scott was playing some role in out without the death without the death of george floyd, we don't even take the confederate flag down in south without nine people being killed in a church. and so what i am what i am, am i articulating to you and what i talk about in book is that i feel like it's my job to drive down the price that black folk have to pay to have change in this country because blood for

simply is too high a always to have to in order for us to those policy changes that are necessary for us to not survive but thrive. selma, be the counter to your point that you just saw. i'm going to be on your dad's side this 1954 certain metrics. it is. i'm going to say in all metrics, it is. i'm going to say i'm going to tell you why. one, going back to your point about tim scott, republicans didn't want it and he was the sticking as to why police never happened they tried appease him even with donald with donald trump and i got this from karen bass who's now the of los angeles who worked that correct. they offered what donald trump offered and he said no. they'd tried to codify it. correct. he said no. he said no. then let's go. this piece you talk about south

carolina, that was a bold move after friend passed a pinckney was killed and those others in mother emanuel church that is solemn sacred. you walk in there. i walked in that church. e year after you can feel something. yeah, you can feel the spirit there. but let me say this. they took it down. they the confederate flag down in south carolina. but you got mississippi right? mississippi. if you don't know the story google it to watch the grio said the governor of mississipdeclared april confederate month. what we said yeah we still have a confederate we still have a confederate holiday in south carolina it's a state i'm taking it all. they believe should they should know their history. i'm sorry. what did you say? i say we still got a confederate holiday. south carolina. i will be at home to it. everybody is. but but you're going to be preaching to this is why this is okay. this is why this why i push back on you and my when biometrics

for example black homeownership is today the same rates that it was in 1968. but wait a minute up but it did go higher it was at its height during the clinton and once black folks started buying homes and the banks saw during the bush era so oh let's get some let's let's do something. and then we became foreclosed on and now we've rolled back. okay, go ahead. hit. i would like to see. now i just let you know we might progressed but as soon as this progress does regress. what i was i was articulating that by certain by certain metrics baltimore up in south carolina can handle their. by certain metrics. you're right the problem the that the problem that i have is that you be intellectually honest and to and say that we have not made in this country and the reason being is because

it goes to the conversation i was having earlier, because there are people like emmett, there are people like jimmy lee jackson. there are people like medgar evers. there are people who literally paid a price and who gave what abraham lincoln called the last full measure of devotion. there are people who know what jailhouse floors feel like, who know what gunsmoke smells like. you know. henry smith. samuel hammond. delano middleton. the three young men who were killed in the orangeburg massacre when my father was shot february 8th, 1968. and so if you are going to take the position that we have not made progress then? my fear is that saying their sacrifices lives were in vain, and i refuse to acknowledge that. no, you're right now that south carolina, i don't know what i'll do it, but it's more. okay. but denmark. but denmark. baltimore never said there wasn't progress. the issue is when there is there

is a pullback. there's let me say this. the 1965 voting rights act, as you were talking about bloody sunday and that racist name bridge, the edmund pettus, all of that where we now we are voting without the full protections of the voting rights act and everyplace get it it they have completely gutted it started really in 2013 with shelby v holder the supreme court and it's gone downhill since. now let's talk about this most recent action in the u.s. supreme court where the narrative is not right on education and. it's going to strain our because. we they're taking out all affirmative action and admissions process. now, here's the thing. people want to knock affirmative action. it's anti-wt whatever they want. they want to knock the 1964 civil rights act. that's what they're trying to do. but the narrative they're trying to create is for everything blanket blanketly done for

everything in corporate america. but it's s for. so we are being mocked in every way. and let tell you something i dare to even say we're going as far back as the brown v with that. yeah but but i mean, come on. we're saying is that the in the book i talk about it what white supremacy is and white supremacy is very easily defined it's when it's when equality feels oppression. mm hmm. you know, a lot of people here you know, when we are fighting for an equal playing field for them, they feel like they're now oppressed. and it stems from fear. i had to have a lengthy conversation about tucker carlson. carlson yes, you do. and it's it's echo chamber in the silos that have monetized racism. i'm old enough to remember when it wasn't cool to be racist. i remember when you kind of knew the races, but they didn't really come outside like they

did during the barack obama presidency when they used to whisper in the shadows. but now people have replaced they've replaced a white sheet with the eyes cut out for a brooks brothers suit. and now they actually had their own tv and their talk radio shows, and they're able to espouse that. and why because there is an inherent value to that, because it's ad is they they literally have money racism it's become a in this country and you the clay travis's of the world you have the candace owens the worldean hannity of the world, the tucker carlson's that that fment that and i even would bluhm who's going up against the fearless fund. yeah i even i even say and in book i was on the breakfast the other day and got it we had a conversation because i brought up the white gay steve and a smith and an cube and and and jason whitlock as well. and it's individual who utilize and give give that level of

ignorance, a platform and it becomes become somewhat and i said it and i didn't really think about what i was saying but it made sense you become somewhat of a useful idiot and it by wanting to have that gaze gazi or my wanting to be white a like like some of these gentlemen are you are doing a disservice to our community as well. and i don't feel like to accountability. i don't feel like you can have a hout holding your own accountable as well and you have to be willing to put a mirror up just as king did in his best piece of writing, which is the from the birmingham jail, which he wrote to who black folk and in particular, black ministers. and so i to have these conversations with us in this book as well and it's interesting you say the letter from the birmingham jail was two black ministers because when dr. king first started, it was only

like 4% of black churches supported. right? nobody. i mean, dr. king, the unique thing about this, when i tell people this, they like what his last gallup approval rating before april 4th of 68, when he was murdered, was taken in 64. his rating in 64 was lower than donald trump's rating at any point in time donald trump consistently has always had a higher rating than martin luther king jr when he was alive. i fundamentally don't even like talking about dr. king. and the reason being is because and i talk about this in the book, i don't like talking about dr. king in public because his his legacy has been whitewashed and people treat him as if he was some docile individual abbit revolutionary that he was and the person who when i close my eyes puts me in the mind frame of dr. is one of my heroes that i was able to interview for this book. but the reverend dr. william barber.

oh, oh, yeah. and the reason being is because they are able to tie the between economic plight and race in this country and part of the solution, as we set forth, is that there has to be a conversation about economics because, you know, there's a lot of commonalities between being poor and white in this country and poor and black in this country. and if you don't have access to health care in west and you ain't got access to health care and you black in south carolina you're going to have many of the same problems in trying to figure out if there is a way to have that conversation asian amongst each other. so maybe, just maybe, we can work together. one of the solutions we talk about and that's so interesting you bring that up because. if dr. king and robert were had would have lived. they were assassinated what, six weeks apart. and if both of them had lived past six weeks. yeah, about six weeks apart. if they had lived they would have dealt with not just issues of civil rights, the poverty beyond it wasn't racial was just everyone. i mean, that's what i mean.

that's what he was in memphis for. yeah i mean people forget the reason he was literally in memphis when he was assassinated. he was there. the conditions there was a waste. there was a garbage who was killed because of the conditions that they had to work in and dr. king was going to stand with them to stand think about this, a nobel peace prize winner was going to stand shoulder to, shoulder with sanitation workers. i want you to think about that visual in talking about improving their plight improving their life, making sure that their ends could meet. i just think that's a powerful statement. the type of leadership we and we are thirsting. yeah. and i'm thirsty for this book because i love the fact that you do a compare and contrast with your dad. and yesterday today because it's so important like you say, it's not just dr. king, this

whitewash, but so much is for sure. you knowre trying to ban our books and tell us, you know, that park taken all sorts of things. we had picnic baskets. and i'm like what? it's crazy? and it's important for us to know the truth from. yesterday compared to today and it we have a few minutes before we go to questions i want you to think about your questions. and in a few minutes want you to line up on either side, because i well, on this side, bakari will be taking some of your questions. bakari, on page 43, i want you to take your book and for those of you who have your book open up to page 43, i want you read those stats going back to the issue of race and covid, those stats. oh, yeah yeah i want you to read those stats. listen to. yeah. during the early stages of the pandemic, black americans were three times more likely than white people to die. covid a more astonishing

statistic, one out of 420 black people who were in january 20, 20 were dead. three years later because of covid in. this in this book, i got an opportunity to interview gilchrist garland, the lieutenant governor of the great of michigan. garland lost over 20 people due to covid. i mean, i don't think people truly have the gravity of that. we suffered a physical health perspective. and if run in about 220 years in terms wage and wealth, in comparison, white folk and then covid comes, you're now running probably closer to hundred and 50, 260 years behind your the wealth gap. well yeah. and so, you know, i just that we again the moment the racial reckoning that wasn't we really we literally missed an

opportunity in this country that moment you were talking about in covid george floyd you were very emotional you taken aback. you were looking for words. the of ella baker. oh yeah. so if people ask me, you know, a mountain rushmore of civil rights activists. i love ella baker. i just she is one of the most amazing women ever. i'd also put fannie lou hamer on there. and i love fannie fannie. scares me why she was a bad woman oh and a spanish to fight. i'm not mad but that. yeah she did what she had to do. oh she did what was she did what was necessary. so i wouldand then there's a name of of a young lady named sarah mae

fleming. sarah mae fleming. she set down on a bus before rosa rosa. and then the fourth one, of course, would be shirley chisholm. and i tell people that and they're like, well, if you i'd look at it, i'm like that's for women. and i say, that's because women led the movement. i mean black women will save the world. and anthem wrote a book about it. and and so i talk about you know, i want i want people to acknowledge of those heroes and heroines that are the reason that april and i are able to sit on stage like this before you. i mean. yeah, but ella baker, why was she so poignant for you in that moment? my dad loved ella. my dad worked closely with ella baker. ella baker helped that this book is dedicated to my my kids, nieces, nephews and the founders of s ella on those words she was talking about the value of a black boys and what

it means in book. i have in my first book, my vanishing country. you for all of you all, who picked that up? new york times bestseller. no, thank you. i, i talked black women a lot in that book and gave them their flowers in the we got this saying that you got to give people their flowers. why they living i mean and so in this book i have a chapter about, the untapped power of black men. i have a chapter called dear stokely, where i write a letter to my son. i wanted people to know that there are there. we have to do a better job of understanding the pain of what it means to be a black man in this country understand the stress that black men are living through and, going through. when we when we walk outside it's a feeling of being unloved is an angst of what is around the corner or how someone may view me it's the hyper sexualizing that they do to us or the toxic masculinity that is ise of our

conversations. but even more importantly it's the stress trying to provide them you know and i write i write to black men in this book the untapped power. it's how we have to reengage black men. it's how we have to meet them. where they are is how we have to sometimes shut up and listen to them. and i just don't think enough that is happening. and so. i got one guy one year later out in, say, nine, but i met my homeboy right here. we not only only not only did you get. yup, he pushed his woman and i just. i just think that a lot of times particularly political discourse is, while rightfully so we get black women their flowers, black men have been left out of those conversations and you're beginning to see some slippage. and by reengaging them in bringing them back in the fold and just having these conversations, everything in his book say you may not not agree with, you may not like, but we're trying to shine on what i

believe to be some the issues of the day and even more importantly, shine light on the issues begin, have constructive conversations on the solutions shall islands and dark spaces out to be wells. amen. yes, amen. but i pay homage to my brothers and i pay homage to you because you are so strong. and i think comes in the tears as well. oh, and i just you and i got emotional when i saw the chapter stop. yeah. it reminded me of tanahashi coates because i thought about black in this country. i wanted my son to be able to. he's five now, and he has a five year old twin sister. there's stokely and sadie. and so with their names, you got to know that from the south. when you see. it. those are my babies. stokely is named after stokely carmichael and sadie's named after sadie mays, who has been really amazing wife and you just

you you. i wanted to write to him about the strength that he possesses and the way i described that strength was by telling him and teaching about his grandfather's teaching him about the lineage that he comes from, teaching him about his great grandfather's, teaching him about his uncles like stokely and john lewis and. all of those people who i'm a part of the product proverb it takes a village to raise a child. of those people who were a part of my village i used to go to dc all the uncle marion is what we called him. but marion barry would take me out to lunch and what means is that he would get a couple dollars and we'd go out to one of the street vendors and get a hotdog and sit. that was that was lunch with uncle marion. but it was amazing to see everybody come up and talk to him. it was amazing. to see how many people said, you changed my life. you know, marion barry is arguably greatest united states mayor of all. i don't know anybody talk about marion. forever, mayor forever.

that's why they brought him back. and so i wanted to be able to give stokely some context. and i think with the book burning, to bring it everything you're talking about with the with the history that they taking away from us, as well as the misinformation that's bein poured into our schools, we have to take it amongst ourselves. it's incumbent upon us to teach and share our history. yes. so if i don't, stokely, who he is, then who will. that's. as we talk about stokely. i to go to your youth, your dad, because you talked about how you were always at his knee getting wisdom you know. yeah. you know, i think that a lot of times we have to be able to show show young people.

i say that you can't tell a kid he can be a black doctor if he's never seen one. you know, that's just this this ain't really rocket science. john, i hope you're not looking to get no rocket science out of this book. what you will get is little truth. as i see it. we used to my dad used to run this thing called the denmark recreation center. it a cinderblock building and i remember like the free lunch program in the summers had a government come around and bring you to. and so that's what we started by who? the black panthers. thank. that's right. that's right. and so we would have lesson in the morning we'd have to at a teacher from the school come and give us a lesson in the morning and then we afterwards we do stuff like go and jump ditches or play basketball or something like that. and we had the tents and isolated out in the street. sometimes we go to her house and get them little tents. it yeah, i know what that is right. like the love. i don't know what i'd be doing up here in the summer. no, not. no. okay. yeah. no, no, no. the little comes around. right.

oh no, we had a little lady knock on the door and she had. that's what we get. hello. yeah. and if you if you had if you had if had 50 cent, you would have man, right but at the end of that summer, do you know the lady's. no, the icy lady. okay okay. that was, that was her name when you saw her in grocery store. you like, hey, miss icy lady. but at the end of the summer, my dad would take us to kerwin, which is which is a theme that is on the border, north carolina, south carolina and we would always go and i would this is wild because the number one attract and when we got there for all of my friends, you would never guess it. people want to say maybe the turkey legs or maybe it was this ride or that ride. it wasn't. it wasn't. no, it was. when you walked, there was a

state line that divided north carolina. south carolina went overland because they never been and you're giving people experiences and the best way that you can educate a child is to show them. and so one of the things my dad did was, you know i was always around and meeting these people. and i remember before i gave speech in 2016, i came in with it. what was the convention and 60? i can't remember where was, but i spoke before hillary rodham clinton on that friday and john lewis tapped me. they call me little o. my dad's name was sue. so people in snick in the movement refer to me as little and he said, lucille, you know be always be prepared to walk onto the pages of history. and that's how john lewis used to talk. everything he said was profound. be like how you going to say this in the hallway? like who do things like that? but sir, yes, sir. yes, sir. john and i went on stage and did my thing. it was because of those experiences being in spaces with people like that. i'd pick up the phone and be

kathleen cleaver calling right or it'd be judi on the phone. it's just all of these powerful people who gave us so much and him giving, me, those experiences. one of the things i want to do is be able to give stokely those s. but i also know taking i take a lot from my faith but there's a concept that we refer to as standing in the gap. i also know that there are a lot of black boys who do not have that opportunity. and so whose job is that? i was exactly and so i talk about that is one of the solutions because sometimes we get caught in our myopic view of self. and i dare not i'm only 39, so i dare not come in here and have the audacity to try to tell you that you should do more, but you should do more. so okay, we have 3 minutes. i want you to line up over here. but for those of you who have,

have you been enjoying moment? oh, yeah thank you. yeah. thank you so much. it's a moment that could actually into a movement. well, it's a moment that could turn into a movement but as we talk about the moment this man your prescription we talked about the problem. are your prescriptions? oh, man, we out prescriptions throughout the book. every chapter. we try to have a prescription of of where to go forward because i hate when pastors or teachers or speakers or whomever. they just tell you how to identify the problem. and then you look up 40 minutes later and you just wallow in the problem and shouting and jumping in and it's like, wait a minute, i'm, you know, in the and so in this book, we talk about we talk about things like challenging the black church to do more. i have an entire chapter in here, the black church and the. and the what? the black church.

and i generalize and i state that it's a generalization. and although some churches are doing some things as a collective. it ain't what it was. and i talk about the the, the, the how capitalism has it has caused some of this and these megachurches. now, what the church used to be the epicenter for change our communities you just there on sundays you were there all week you know and so we the church in this book, we talk about public education system. we talk about those environmental and social injustices. talk about these structures. and the most amazing thing about these structures, i.e., criminal justice system, is that it ain't broken because these systems work as they are intended intended. they're profitable. and so i talk the fact that the only way we can fix it is if we go in with the mindset. we're going to deconstruct these systems and rebuild them in an image that looks like us. and so the prescriptions know,

like, like i said, this book is just meant in the words will will ferrell provocative. it keeps the people going. hopefully it'll give you something to chew on. all it's meat not. that's all right. all right. so we're at that time where if you have a question, they're coming to the aisles we would like to hear what you have questions fast so we can get to everyone no comments please but questions and the gentleman who we heard you go and you shook your wife was a woman. yes. lease. yes. i just want to ask, do you when you go out in public and that's for you to april and talk to different people, especially women, i hear a lot of negative things like biden is too old to be president and my comment to them. well the worst thing that happen is biden is president and then he dies so then what do you have

left? you have a black woman as president. so why are we always saying biden is too full to be president and that you identified? so what what i would say is this that the reason the reason that biden's age is a problem for people is because you have a black female vice. no. but what saying is what i'm saying is i'm hearing this from black folk. yeah. i mean and i'm like, what? right now i'm right. i'm working was and i have a dream speech. i had this fierce urgency of now right. and, and he's all both all right. oh, it just they they two octogenarians that that's a fact. one is crazy. yeah. and how many times indicted. how many times impeached. and the other one, just the biggest problem that both of them had though, the biggest problem that both of them have

and this kind of gets to your question is that both of them talk about the past. and what i would like for joe biden do more of is even at 83 years old, you got to give me a vision for the future. now, you may not be here that long, but i need to know what you want. america look like for your grandkids. yeah. so let me say this let me say this really fast and in and there needs to be disclaimer. he's very to the vice president. yeah that's my i love her with all my heart very close to vice president kamala harris. so he's going to go back, tell them what you said. now on this. i was in baltimore. we need to talk about now. and i know what you said about division for the future, but she is the vision, so i agree with you. okay. right. hold on. let me say this to you. and i've got from a from my unscientific reporting, i feel in this crowd and and out in the

street and watching the polls. we are in a quagmire. everything is broken. we've had so much taken from us. people are looking for that silver bullet. there's not a silver bullet. but here's the thing. as you was saying, well, bad. and kamala, what did dr. king what did lbj tell king to do make me do it? where are we making them? do we waiting for them to do something? we are very reactionary society. i'm telling this from sitting on that unique perch, that white house for 27 years, the people who get action are the ones with what the squeaky wheel that's constant what's she going to do? what have you made her do? what have you made him do? you know, trump, all he's doing is going to chick-fil-a and hugging up on some symbols like women and they are like, hey yeah, but when it comes to and then what's the head of the union, one of the unionsas like, don't vote for trump it's all pictures. he said it today on on mika and

joe. he said you know that's the wrong channel. no it's not. i love you. i love you. this is my side. ing joe on msnbc this morning the head that of thathe going to deal with our was pensions and he's right and he said i'm going to talk to mitch he never did it and biden did it. you have to make them hold them accountable and you have to do your due diligence because right now. it's not going to come to you like oh wow, you have to be engaged to care yourself to take it to the highest office in the land. i'm not telling you what to do, but that's what i see from this unique perch that i've been sitting in for 27 years. and he's not. and i'm you, joe biden and i, we got get to more questions. we are we had i was with him when i was with him at lunch for

what is it state of the union. he was clear, though he's he is clear. he just what you see he is clear. he answers look what you looking at. he is clear. you don't. okay i'm you. i had lunch with him for over an hour. we were eating and talking and he was clear on issues this. and i've done it for three years. he's clear he might be softer but he's still clear i'm a be clear my question yes things come off this good i love the desk baltimore i yes what i would like to know bakari i know that you've held office before but have you thought about holding office a higher level at a national level? i think it all the time that i you know there is there if there is an opportunity let's say if jim clyburn were to retire, would i do that? probably. but each day that goes by, i'm less likely. and let me tell you something we don't know. no, i don't know nothing. okay. and the reason because can you name a job? people would choose where you go to work willingly with people you do not like like.

like i don't really have a whole lot of want to sit beside marjorie taylor greene. i like i just don't. and there's a certain level and just getting older now, we're like peace you, you don't have tolerance for that. and and i my platform now being on cnn able be an audience is like this with rooms of great people like you all you know i my platform is bigger than the 435th member of congress so we'll see it's a it's a it is a toxic toxic place up there. they don't get nothing done. i wouldn't be surprised 30 years that might be in your future. go ahead. yes, hello. thank you. i'm pretty sure you are with the willie lynch letter. you know, do you feel like that his message and would did to us back then is still working today? oh i you see aspects of it. i mean i mean i believe it it but let me just yeah i mean so this is not directly on point

the parallel. one of the most despicable, inhumane, brilliant political tactics we've seen in recent recent history is busing migrants from texas to major black cities. now they're sending them to right. so i was like, what? let me google sanctuary cities. let me see what they are. did ya know they got sanctuary cities in kansas, you know, where migrants aren't going? kansas. and so why are they doing them? because now you're having these converse sessions between black and brown for and the conversations are rooted in resources. why is that group of people getting resources? when my community looks like this and, it's tearing us apart. it's it they using actual human beings as chess pieces. yes. and they're trafficking them.

yes. and it's disgusting politically. it's been one of the most brilliant things they that governor abbott has done. and have to figure out, just letter, have to be able to see through some of the tactics that are going on. we have to be able to see the forest for the trees. thank. yes, ma'am. you said no comment. but april, i'm a baltimore woman and i have to thank you so much for what you did for us. trump and standing up being strong and then i like holding him accountable. you can do that. that's as i've cried in front of that tv here. yeah my question i do have one is if we that the george floyd standing on the neck seeing that live know that made me to having an open casket. we know those two things may difference in our in our rights movement correct why we show open caskets why don't we show

what's happening to our why don't we show the gun violence and the things when police do this to our children. it's shocking, but it's absolutely. yeah i i'm tired of we have an addiction like black death -- in this country where we want a we we we we to hear about it like to see it. and you're right. i just wish i don't think you're wrong i just wish we didn't have to do it. i don't i i don't think any parent wants to do it. but if you look at your body. oh yeah. and those would have been caskets, it would have been a different. know with all the demands. it it would not have been. well, let me tell you. i would have been different. let me tell you this. why? when. 20 little white kids were killed in sandy. and we did nothing about gun

laws in this country, they weren't going to care about. no brown babies at the border. all right. so i don't i don't think you're wrong. i think that i thinkt great deal you know, my dad, mamie till, that picture ended up in ebony magazine. right. it's it's an entire generation. my dad's a part of the emmett till generation because his death made him to get involved because they didn't want to see more black boys who were their age, brutally lynched. you know, his face looked like a pancake. all right, so there is that great value in what you're saying. i just come from the perspective that why must we always have an emmett till just to have change right. but i also think we're desensitized when he says so much. i think we're desensitized at this. i think it would have to be so graphic. we just look at it as a numbers. they're like, well, you know, we had, you know, however many deaths in baltimore week we don't even look at that is like children students future kids

who could have been a doctor kids who could have been a teacher. we don't even look at them like that. we look at them a statistic. now, i'm not saying this is a more global weed than the people in this room, but you're right about the desensitization. i don't know if that's a word since. well, you made it up. hey, how you doing? just wanted to ask a question and then maybe follow up. you can comment on it. so when i was a young person, right, looked up constitution, ality says in a book, and i saw that in that book it had an answer. could a constitution itself to be unconstitutioamendment? could the constitution itself be unconstitutional? and i'm asking you that question you know because you're a lawyer and i know you know these things so what books landed in what like. one i have a decent of anxiety and i want people to lead a

constitution along. okay, because i don't want them have a chance to take away anything else from us. the last thing i want them to do is open it up and be like, man that 14, i don't know if we need that more. i used to say that i wanted a i wanted a two constitutional amendments. i actually stole from little jessie. little jessie say that all the time. he it was in his book. he talked about the fact that jessie j. he said that he wanted a constitutional amendment so that everyone had access to quality access to a first class education. he was pushing for those two constitutional amendments. but i'm deathly afraid that once you want it become in the in legal field, we refer to it as a slippery, a sticky, sticky wicket. the reason i ask this question is because when the constitution was ratified, the north and the south had a disagreement. how are we going to count these black people?

it was the north who said these people people. and also in that same constitution, it says was cool. yeah. is can the constitution be unconstitutional? the answer to the question is not that i understand what you're saying. answer to the question is no. that's what i. and the answer to the question is is that the constitution is actually updated but it says that it's a it's a living breathing document, but it's outdated. never thought about the contract. i'm with you. i'm just terrified. it never thought about barack obama as president. you never thought about could you pass you mike johnson you let mike johnson get of that constitution if you want to believe that my johnson may not be here next week. so that's true to what? they just got to replace him with somebody worth marjorie taylor greene as we say, as we say in denmark, they're going replace it with somebody worser. thank you so.

thank you. your time. we have time for two more questions. this one and this one over here. yes. hey, bekah, great to see april. i don't know if you remember me from. white house, 2009, ten, 11. i thought you look familiar to you. i'm good. and take a lot of photographs of sort of highlighting the city and then i have a little package here from akari my articles. okay so guess my question is, with all this white supremacy stuff, charlottesville, you know, what happened at the the the on oe church obviously but buffalo also stood out to me. buffalo stood to me too, because tap's market there was this plan in my contacts in journalism who told me? that a live feed went directly to capitol hill. so people would have seen that live. that's a big problem for me personally. buffalo. buffalo. i talked it in a book.

buffalo was fascinating because he took the best of us, you know the the men and women died in that predominate black community. that was their grocery. but were if you look at their bios, if you look who they were, it reminded me so much buffalo reminded me of mother emanuel just because in mother emanuel he took the best of us. right. and i know we're not supposed to give value to, but i do. i mean i got a favorite kid anyway. that's neither nor there but but i think when you look at things like the socioeconomic overlay of buffalo when you look at the inherent and how can we a community where we have someone who as much hate in heart as bull connor lester maddox wow.

i mean these are the questions that we have to ask and you're right i mean you're about the role of media and the fact that we don't even remember buffalo existed already it goes to the desensitization of of where we are as a community. you're right. good question. top secret supermarket. thank you. good seeing you again. yes, sir yes, sir. how are you doing? there was a comment you made earlier about martin luther king's approval ratings and comparing it to joe. and it reminded me of this documentary, saw king. have you seen king in the wilderness? yes, my dad is in it. yeah. okay. i'll watch it again now. and the reason is there's a scene and this one of my favorite scenes, powerful scenes where king and stokely are walking together and the interview is interviewing them about black power. but you hear their diverge a correct and they just really hit close to home. yeah. so my question is your dad was a best friend of did do you think

that their ideological differences do you think that lasted their entire lives or do you think we're closer to king's do you think they're idealized ideologies would have kind of come together they didn't know it. that's a really good question. i appreciative of that question. stokely. see, my dad was really close with dr. king to i joke all the time that dr. king didn't get everything right because he both he before my dad's first wedding and that thing lasts about six months. all right. all right move on. move. but but dr. king came from place and a perspective that was rooted in his faith. and dr. king believed in this interesting type of love that i'm exploring now. but i say that you have to love your neighbor even they don't love you. and dr. king believed that to core, which made him a great man. an rap. yeah. you they were human. they were human.

but believed if you got punch the thing you do is you punch you back. that's they didn't have time to pray for you. right and i say that to say that was all necessary. and the thought of abernathy kay, the thought of sclc, the thought of king was just as important as the thought of stokely. yeah right core was essential. the acp was essential. i mean you the black panthers were black. they were all, all essential to the to the progress that we've made today. and unfortunately, a lot of those relationships. so one of the relationships which i talk about in my vanishing country that a lot of people don't know was frayed, that i to to bring themselves back together before their death was john lewis and julian bond. oh, oh, my god. and you in the movement. they had a lot of there a lot of those personalities. and so i try to lift them all up and share their and share their

light. that was a beautiful question, you brother. and with that, that was the final question. and i just want to celebrate and salute this great man, bakari sellers. he is a cnn analyst lawyer, civil rights lawyer, author, father and just amazing husband and, a husband. we can't forget that amazing human being. and if you don't have this book. please get book the moment by bakari sellers and not only that get it for yourself a couple for other friend like for juneteenth gifts christmas because i'm serious but pass it along because they're banning our books and when they ban our books we don't know our history this is history yesterday and today thank you all. thank you all so much. thank you. thank you, grace. i think all